6.  The applicants were born in 1985, 1959, 1958 and 1977 respectively and live in the village of Novo Selo in the Vidin region (Bulgaria). The applicants are of Roma ethnic origin. At the time of the events (May-June 2003), the first applicant was still a minor. The second and third applicants are her father and mother, and the fourth applicant is the first applicant’s sister‑in‑law.
7.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
8.  The first, second and third applicants arrived in Milan on 12 May 2003 following a promise of work by X., a Roma man of Serbian nationality, residing in Italy, who accommodated them in a villa in the village of Ghislarengo, in the province of Vercelli, where he lived with his family. The third and the first applicants provided different versions on this point to the Italian authorities. In her declarations to the Italian police, on 24 May 2003, the third applicant maintained that she, her husband and her daughter, who lived in Bulgaria in a condition of extreme precariousness, moved to Italy in search of work; when they arrived in Milan they approached an individual who spoke their language, X., who proposed to them to work as domestic employees to take care of his big house. The first applicant, in her declarations to the public prosecutor on 11 June 2003, maintained that she had met X. in “Yugoslavia”, where she was with her mother in search of a job, and from there X. had driven them to Italy in his car after proposing a job. They remained in the villa for several days, during which time they undertook household chores. After a while, X. declared to the second applicant that Y., his nephew, wanted to marry his daughter (the first applicant). As the second and third applicants refused, X. threatened them with a loaded gun. Then the second and third applicants were beaten, threatened with death and forced to leave the first applicant in Italy and go back to Bulgaria. Although the applicants denied this, it seems from their initial submissions that the second and third applicants had been offered money to leave their daughter behind. On 18 May 2003, the second and third applicants went back to Bulgaria. On their return the second applicant was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, which he alleged was a consequence of the stress endured.
9.  The applicants submitted that during the month (following 18 May 2003) spent at the villa in Ghislarengo, the first applicant was kept under constant surveillance and was forced to steal against her will, was beaten, threatened with death and repeatedly raped by Y. while tied to a bed. During one of the robberies in which the first applicant was forced to participate, she had an accident and had to be treated in hospital. However, the Serbian family refused to leave her there to undergo treatment. The applicants submitted that they were not aware of the name and location of this hospital.
10.  On 24 May 2003 the third applicant returned to Italy, accompanied by the first applicant’s sister‑in‑law (the fourth applicant), and lodged a complaint with the Italian police in Turin, reporting that she and her husband had been beaten and threatened and that the first applicant had been kidnapped. She further feared that her daughter might be led into prostitution. They were settled in a monastery near Turin. Subsequently, the police accompanied them with an interpreter to identify the house in Ghislarengo.
11.  Apparently frustrated with the police’s slowness in responding to the complaint, the second applicant lodged written complaints with many other institutions. A letter of 31 May 2003, addressed to the Italian Prime Minister, the Italian Ministers for Foreign and Internal Affairs, the Italian Ambassador in Bulgaria, the Prefect of Turin, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, the Bulgarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Bulgarian Ambassador to Italy, is included in the file.
12. It has been shown that, eighteen days after the lodging of the complaint, on 11 June 2003, the police raided the house in Ghislarengo, found the first applicant there and made a number of arrests. At about 2 p.m. that day, she was taken to a police station in Vercelli and questioned, in the presence of an interpreter, by two female and two male police officers. The applicants alleged that she was treated roughly and threatened that she would be accused of perjury and libel if she did not tell the truth. Allegedly she was then forced to declare that she did not wish her supposed kidnappers to be prosecuted, to answer “yes” to all other questions, and to sign certain documents in Italian, which she did not understand and which were neither translated into Bulgarian nor given to her. They also alleged that the interpreter did not do her job properly and remained silent in the face of the treatment being inflicted. The applicants further alleged that Y. was present during certain parts of the first applicant’s questioning.
13.  Later that day, the third applicant was questioned by the police in Vercelli in the presence of an interpreter. The third applicant alleged that she was also threatened that she would be accused of perjury and libel if she did not tell the truth, and that the interpreter did not do her job properly. She claimed that, as she refused to sign the record, the police treated her badly.
14.  At about 10 p.m. on the same day the first applicant was questioned again. The applicants alleged that no interpreter or lawyer was present and that the first applicant was unaware of what was recorded. The first applicant was then taken to a cell and left there for four or five hours. On 12 June 2003 at about 4 a.m., she was transferred to a shelter for homeless persons, where she remained until 12.30 p.m.
15.  On the same day, upon their request, the first, third and fourth applicants were taken by the police to the railway station in Vercelli and travelled back to Bulgaria.  They submitted to the Court that the facts were then investigated by the Italian authorities, but that no criminal proceedings were instituted in Italy against the first applicant’s kidnappers, or at least that they were not informed, nor were they able to obtain information about any ongoing criminal investigation. They also complained that the Italian authorities did not seek to question the second applicant in order to establish the facts, by means of cooperation with the Bulgarian authorities.
16.  It appears from the file that, after June 2003, the applicants sent several letters and e-mails, most of which were in Bulgarian, to the Italian authorities (such as the Italian Prime Minister, the Italian Ministers for Justice and Internal Affairs, the General Prosecutor attached to the Court of Appeal of Turin, the mayor of Ghislarengo and the Italian diplomatic authorities in Bulgaria), with a request to provide them with information about the police raid of 11 June 2003 and to start criminal proceedings against the first applicant’s alleged kidnappers. They also complained that they had suffered threats, humiliation and ill-treatment at the hands of the police. They asked those authorities to forward their complaints to the Public Prosecutor in Vercelli and to the police department of the same town.
17.  At the same time, the applicants also wrote to the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, the Head of the Consular Relations Division of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (CRD) and the Bulgarian Consulate in Rome, requesting them to protect their rights and assist them in obtaining information from the Italian authorities. The Bulgarian Consulate in Rome provided the applicants with certain information.
18.  The applicants did not provide the Court with any document regarding their questioning and the subsequent criminal proceedings against them (see below). Their representative claimed that, considering the circumstances, including the alleged refusal of the Italian Embassy in Bulgaria, it was impossible to submit any document. Apart from copies of the letters sent to the Italian institutions, they only submitted two medical reports, one dated 22 June 2003 establishing that the first applicant was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and one dated 24 June 2003 establishing that the first applicant had a bruise on the head, a small wound on the right elbow and a broken rib. It further stated that she had lost her virginity and was suffering from a vaginal infection. The medical report concluded that these injuries could have been inflicted in the way the first applicant had reported.
19.  On 21 April 2009 and 30 July 2009, at the Court’s request, the Italian Government submitted a number of documents, among which the transcript of the first complaint lodged by the third applicant on 24 May 2003 with the Turin police, and the minutes of the interviews with the first applicant, the third applicant and some of the alleged kidnappers, which took place on 11 June 2003.
20.  It appears from these documents that the transcript of the third applicant’s first complaint against the alleged kidnappers (lodged with the Italian police in Turin on 24 May 2003), as well as the applicants’ complaints sent by their representative to different Italian institutions, in the following days, were transmitted to the Italian police in Vercelli (on 26 May and 6 June 2003 respectively) and to the Public Prosecutor of the same town (on 4 and 13 June 2003 respectively).
21.  More specifically, on 26 May 2003 the Turin Mobile Squad requested help from the Vercelli Mobile Squad to identify the location where the first applicant was allegedly being held. On 27 May 2003 the Vercelli Mobile Squad went to Ghislarengo to identify the location together with the third applicant. They inspected the location and the third applicant identified the villa she had mentioned in her complaint. On 4 June 2003 the Vercelli Police Headquarters transmitted the crime report (notizia di reato) to the Vercelli Public Prosecutor’s Office. From the communal registry it appeared that no person resided in the identified villa, but that it was owned by an individual who had a criminal record. In consequence, the police kept the place under surveillance. The police raided the villa on 11 June 2003, after having observed movement inside. During the search the police seized a number of cameras containing photographs of what appeared to be a wedding.
22.  On 7, 11, 12 and 13 June 2003, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was informed by fax of developments in the case.
23.  On 11 June 2003 at about 2.30 p.m., immediately after the raid, the first applicant was questioned by the Public Prosecutor of Vercelli, who was assisted by the police. As also transpires from the documents, the first applicant made allegations that showed a number of discrepancies with the complaint previously submitted by her mother, and which led the authorities to conclude that no kidnapping, but rather an agreement about a marriage, had in reality taken place between the two families. This conclusion was confirmed by photographs given to the police by X. after the raid, showing a wedding party at which the second applicant received a sum of money from X. When showed the photographs, the first applicant denied that her father had taken money as part of the agreement about the marriage.
24.  At 8.30 p.m. the third applicant was questioned by the Public Prosecutor in Vercelli. She stated again that her daughter had not married Y. of her own free will, and claimed that the photographs were nothing but a fake, taken on purpose by the alleged kidnappers, who had threatened them with a gun, in order to undermine the credibility of their version of the facts. The Vercelli police also questioned X., Z. (a third party present at the wedding) and Y., who all stated that Y. had entered into a consensual marriage with the first applicant.
25.  As a result of these interviews and on the basis of the photographs, the Public Prosecutor of Vercelli decided to turn the proceedings against unknown persons for kidnapping (1735/03 RGNR) into proceedings against the first and third applicants for perjury and libel. Later that evening, the first and third applicants were informed by the Vercelli and Turin police about the charges and invited to appoint a representative. They were then provided with a court-appointed lawyer. At about 11.30 p.m. the first applicant was transferred to a shelter for homeless people. On 12 June 2003 she was released into the custody of her mother. The applicants’ complaints sent to many Italian institutions during the following months were received by the Police Department in Vercelli, translated into Italian and forwarded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
26.  Following information requests, the first dated 6 November 2003 by the Embassy of Bulgaria in Rome, the Italian authorities updated the Consul about the status of the criminal proceedings (mentioned below) on 7 and 19 November 2003, and 2 December 2003.
27.  On 11 July 2003, the Public Prosecutor attached to the Juvenile Court of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta started criminal proceedings (1838/03 RGNR) against the first applicant for false accusations (calunnia) in so far as she claimed that X., Y. and Z. deprived her of her personal liberty by keeping her in the villa, thus accusing them of kidnapping while knowing they were innocent.
28.  On 28 November 2003 the first applicant was invited for questioning by the Public Prosecutor, but she was in Bulgaria and did not appear.
29.  On 26 January 2005 the Investigating Magistrate of the Juvenile Court decided not to proceed with the charges in so far as the offences committed were one-off and not serious, and therefore “socially irrelevant”.
30.  On 26 June 2003 the Public Prosecutor of Turin started criminal proceedings (18501/03 RGNR) against the third applicant for perjury and false accusations (calunnia) in so far as she claimed that X., Y. and Z. deprived her daughter of her personal liberty by keeping her in the villa, thus accusing them of kidnapping while knowing they were innocent.
31.  On 22 July 2003 the Public Prosecutor of Turin concluded the investigation against the third applicant and sent the case to the Turin Criminal Court.
32.  On 8 February 2006 the Turin Criminal Court acquitted the third applicant, on the ground that the facts of which she was accused did not subsist. The actual evidence consisting of the notes verbal of the questioning of the accused and her daughter, the photographic evidence and the policemen’s statements, were indicative and could not establish without doubt the guilt of the accused. The accused and her daughter’s statements were contradictory and the photos did not certify the circumstances in which they were taken. According to the police statements it could only be deduced that the daughter had been found at the villa and the persons who could have clarified the facts had availed themselves of the right to remain silent. The understanding of the facts was further complicated by the Roma tradition of selling, or paying a sum of money previously established to the family of the bride for the purposes of concluding a marriage, a matter which in the case of a dispute could have created consequences which it had been impossible to establish.
33.  On the basis of the documents produced by the Italian Government, particularly the declarations made by X., Y. and Z., the Bulgarian Government considered the facts to be as follows.
On 12 May 2003 the first three applicants arrived in Italy and were accommodated in the nomad camp in Arluno. It was there that X., Y. and Z. met them and that Y. chose the first applicant as his spouse. The first applicant agreed and therefore Z. and the second applicant bargained over the price of the bride. The second applicant initially demanded EUR 20,000, but eventually they agreed on the sum of EUR 11,000. Z. paid the second applicant EUR 500 in advance. After festivities the newlyweds retired to the trailer where they consummated the marriage and Y. confirmed that the first applicant had been a virgin. The two families then went to the nomad camp of Kudzhiono where they celebrated the marriage. At the end of the wedding X. paid the second applicant the remainder of the amount due, namely EUR 10,500, in the presence of both families and other witnesses, as proven by the photographs. After the festivities the bride’s parents were accompanied to the railway station and left for Bulgaria on 18 May 2003.
34.  Once in Bulgaria it was only on 31 May 2003, thirteen days after their departure from Italy, that the second applicant complained to the CRD of Bulgaria. Following this first notification, the Bulgarian authorities took immediate action and on 2 June 2003 the claim was forwarded to the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome. Contact was made with the Italian authorities and a successful raid by the Italian police which freed the first applicant was carried out on 11 June 2003.
35.  Subsequently, the first and third applicants were questioned by a prosecutor specialised in interaction with minors, in the presence of an interpreter. Following an investigation by the Italian authorities, criminal proceedings against the first and third applicants for perjury were initiated. The applicants did not inform the Bulgarian authorities of the latter proceedings.